Another incredible, unsubstantiated allegation from a lib
with an ax to grind. ......
1982 OR 1983
The Corner
Rich Lowry
The old 1988 maternity leave allegation against Bolton now seems fresh: there's an allegation from 1982 or 1983. From the LA Times:
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Meanwhile, a former subordinate of Bolton's offered to provide information to the committee about the way she said that Bolton treated her in the early 1980s, when they both worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
In a letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Lynne D. Finney said Bolton had bullied her and tried to have her fired when they clashed over U.S. policy on the distribution of infant formula in developing countries — an issue that was then highly visible and politically charged.
Finney said she was working as a USAID attorney and had developed relationships with foreign officials at the United Nations. She said that in late 1982 or early 1983, Bolton called her into his office and told her to use her influence to persuade the United Nations to ease a policy that restricted the marketing and promotion of infant formula in developing countries.
Finney objected, saying that she could not, in good conscience, push for such changes, because she believed that the improper use of formula in poor countries was jeopardizing the health of babies.
"He shouted that Nestle was an important company and that he was giving me a direct order from President Reagan," she wrote in the letter. "He yelled that if I didn't obey him he would fire me."
When she persisted, Finney said, "he yelled that I was fired."
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Finney described herself this way to the committee:
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Finney, who lives in Utah and is a writer, lecturer and psychotherapist specializing in childhood trauma, declined to be interviewed for this article. She stated in her letter to Boxer that she cared about world peace and wanted to help defeat Bolton's nomination.
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Here is what State says:
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Bolton has declined to respond to allegations, saying it would be inappropriate while the committee considered his candidacy.
But a State Department official, who asked to remain unidentified, said Finney's account was "full of erroneous information and inaccuracies." He said the Reagan administration had stopped trying to overturn the U.N.'s rules on baby formula after it lost a vote by a wide margin.
He said that the State Department had "talked to a number of people who were there [in the USAID] at the time, and they have no recollection of these events, as described."
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nationalreview.com
latimes.com |
